2023-10-23 11:32:00
A Russian court on Monday ordered the pre-trial detention “until December 5” of Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, arrested last week, becoming the second American reporter detained in the country, Russian news agencies said.
The Sovetsky Court of Kazan, in the Tatarstan region, indicated that it had validated the request of the investigators who arrested the journalist on Wednesday, accusing her of breaches linked to her registration in the register of “foreign agents” while she was engaged in “the intentional collection of information regarding military activities” that could be harmful to “the security of Russia.”
Ms. Kurmasheva, who works for the American media Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), risks up to five years in prison.
RFE/RL interim president Jeffrey Gedmin said last week he was “worried.” “Journalism is not a crime. She must be immediately returned to her family,” he added.
The status of “foreign agent”, which recalls the Soviet term “enemy of the people”, imposes administrative constraints and very heavy financial control on the persons or entities concerned.
It also requires that any publication, including on social networks, be accompanied by this label.
Some of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most respected critics are among these “foreign agents”, such as Nobel Peace Prize winner and editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov.
Ms. Kurmasheva, who usually lives in Prague with her husband and children, went to Russia for a “family emergency” on May 20 but was unable to leave because her American and Russian passports were confiscated.
According to the Tatar Inform website, she was fined on October 11 for not having declared her American citizenship to Russian authorities.
According to this media, which cites anonymous police sources, she notably worked on the mobilization by the army of teachers.
Evan Gershkovich
Alsu Kurmasheva, who joined RFE/RL in 1998, works for her service in the Tatar and Bashkir languages, covering these ethnic minorities in Russia inhabiting in particular Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, the Volga and the Ural regions.
Headquartered in Prague, the RFE/RL media outlet is funded by the US Congress and was founded during the Cold War to counter Soviet propaganda in the Eastern Bloc. It still broadcasts content in a multitude of languages, often sensitive in countries ruled by authoritarian regimes.
“I came to work for (RFE/RL) because this media is important to me, its mission to bring objective information to my people, the people who speak my language, Tatar, in particular,” Ms. Kurmasheva explained in 2014.
She is the second American journalist to be arrested in Russia in 2023, after Evan Gershkovich.
This Wall Street Journal reporter, arrested on March 29 while reporting, is detained in Moscow.
Mr. Gershkovich, who also worked for the AFP in Russia in the past, is accused of espionage, a crime punishable by 20 years in prison, an accusation that he, Washington, his newspaper, his friends and his family reject.
Russia has never substantiated these accusations and the entire procedure is classified.
In recent years, several American citizens arrested in Russia have been released after prisoner exchanges with Washington.
10/23/2023 11:30:00 – Moscow (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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